Hungary’s economy minister has set a public debt goal of 60 percent of GDP by 2022, it has been announced.
Mihály Varga told MTI that Hungary’s convergence program for the 2018-2022 period sent to the European Commission includes a growth projection similar to its economic expansion assumption contained in Hungary’s last report.
The minister said growth well above the EU average means Hungary will be able to catch up with the rest of the bloc faster.
He added that by maintaining a high growth rate while pursuing a disciplined fiscal policy, the budget deficit and public debt ratios will both decline.
Minister Varga said a further goal is for the cash-flow budget to be in balance by the end of the current parliamentary cycle.
He said the wage burden is planned to fall to below the regional average by 2022. Also, as companies and educators become more closely connected, the number of corporate training places will expand, further boosting employment growth.
The minister said the most important task of the government’s economic policy in the coming four years would be boosting the rate of growth. He added that improving competitiveness and productivity is key to this goal, requiring support for innovation and infrastructure investments that result in products and services with increased value-added.
Hungary’s GDP growth is set to stay around 4 percent in the coming years, according to the country’s latest convergence program posted on the website of the European Commission.
Economic growth is predicted to be 4.1 percent in 2019, 4 percent in 2020, 4.2 percent in 2021 and 4.1 percent in 2022. The projections for 2019-2021 are 0.3-0.6 percentage points above those in the previous year’s convergence program.